Nuance Lends a Voice to Kraft iFood App
Nuance's Dragon Mobile SDK is providing voice input capabilities in Kraft Foods' iFood Assistant 4.0 app for iPhone and iPod Touch, the companies said Tuesday.
The iFood Assistant is the first major consumer products and goods (CPG) app to use Dragon through Nuance's NDEV Mobile developer program. NDEV Mobile lets developers integrate Nuance's cloud-based voice technology into virtually any application for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone 7.
The app delivers food ideas with how-to videos, recipes, and a built-in shopping list. Just by speaking, users can easily create their shopping list, search for recipes, and navigate recipe steps, according to Nuance. "Since its launch in 2008, the iFood Assistant has become an indispensable food tool for recipes, meal planning, and shopping needs. It recently claimed the number seven spot in Apple's App Store Lifestyle among free apps," said Ed Kaczmarek, Kraft Foods' director of innovation, consumer experiences, in a statement. "People are looking for tools that can keep up with their on-the-go lifestyles. With the new voice features powered by Dragon, we're making shopping and cooking even more convenient."
Nuance's Dragon Mobile SDK lets developers rapidly bring any voice-enabled app to market, even if they have never implemented speech technology before, the company said. The Dragon Mobile SDK powers the voice recognition and speech-to-text capabilities of some of the most popular apps on the market, including Ask for iPhone, Merriam-Webster, Dictionary.com, Shopping List from Recipes.com, SpeechTrans, AirYell and Yellow Pages by Avantar, OnStar RemoteLink, iTranslate, Vocre, SayHi Translate, Bon'App, and more.
"The iFood Assistant app is yet another example of how voice can truly differentiate any mobile app experience," said Matt Revis, vice president, handset business, Nuance Mobile, in a statement. "The NDEV Mobile developer program is incredibly flexible and easy to use, and the iFood Assistant showcases that approach by offering a more personal, convenient, and fun experience for consumers with voice."
The iFood Assistant app is available for free from the Apple App Store.